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Modern Doodlebug

Back when people were making doodlebugs there was a lot more parts and design crossover between passenger vehicles and tractors. If flatfenders or old Toyota trucks were free it might make sense now.
 
One other thing I forgot about that you get with a tractor is a better steering angle.


As far as tractors, in Idaho you can definitely buy a decent one for less than $5k. Apparently IH 806s are pretty cheap there because I have seen 5-6 for less than $5k over the last year or two.
 
Dethmachinefab said:
I'd just stick the driveline in the middle of two heavy channels. Solid mount the rear axle, pivot front. Then you have something nice to work off of, not junky pick up frame and stuff.
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That's where the thought of starting with a shit salt rig came from. A 5.4 with zf5/4r100/6r140 and bench seat and most of a cab/hood is a decent package if those are available for a few hundred bucks due to significant rust.

Sort of inspired by the cracked frame thread on the water hauling Chevy and the carpet bagger thread about how trucks don't last more than 20 years
 
DMG said:
Back when people were making doodlebugs there was a lot more parts and design crossover between passenger vehicles and tractors. If flatfenders or old Toyota trucks were free it might make sense now.
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Yeah 20 year old cars in 1933 were pretty wore out and very bare.
 
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Provience said:
Correct :flipoff2:
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:flipoff2:
 
speed bump said:
One other thing I forgot about that you get with a tractor is a better steering angle.


As far as tractors, in Idaho you can definitely buy a decent one for less than $5k. Apparently IH 806s are pretty cheap there because I have seen 5-6 for less than $5k over the last year or two.
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Beater tractor prices are not linear. There are so many hobby farm/small acerage people out there who "want" a tractor, but not too big, puts the 30-40 hp sizes close to a premium. You can sometimes find a good deal on something that isnt running, which tends to scare away the new farmer types. Now a good number of those who picked up a 30 hp tractor starts to realize it is pretty limited in capability and begins moving into a 50 opr 60 hp range to be able to do more or faster. The size of old tractors starts to balloon about 60 hp, and the hobby people just see it as too big. That and the PTO will be 1000 instead of 540 and other things that make it less enticing. The guys who actually need 100+ hp are mostly needing it to make money and will lean toward buying new for reliability, so the market on beaters in that range is much thinner. It is not unusual to find an old 90 hp harvester for less than a 30hp small tractor. If you can handle a bigger tractor, you might be able to save some money.

Side discussion hint: if you plan on picking up old/used-hard type implements for the tractor, look for a 540 pto. There wont be much available for a 1000 pto. You can get a conversion shaft for some tractors or a slip on converter, but that is just more headache.

Keep in mind, I am talking generally about pre-80s old iron. If you are wanting something newer, I am not the guy. Wiring harnesses and hydro hoses begin to control value on newer equipment. I dont have the coin to run in those circles. All my tractors are from the 50s, 60s and 70s.
 
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I’ve thought about doing something similar for chores. I’d like to find two front steering axles from small tractors and power them using a garden tractor engine and transaxle. One end of the transaxle powering each axle. Then maybe a predator or whatever I found cheap and easy to turn a hydraulic pump. I’ve never looked to hard into any of the gearing or speed numbers there, though.

I also have an old boomlift with an air cooled deutz and hydraulic pump. Hoses and wiring are trashed but the engine and pump work. I’ve never gotten real serious about it but I’ve thought about making something from it. Maybe hook the drive motors up to the front and rear axles or something.
 
Gbkeith said:
I’ve thought about doing something similar for chores. I’d like to find two front steering axles from small tractors and power them using a garden tractor engine and transaxle. One end of the transaxle powering each axle. Then maybe a predator or whatever I found cheap and easy to turn a hydraulic pump. I’ve never looked to hard into any of the gearing or speed numbers there, though.

I also have an old boomlift with an air cooled deutz and hydraulic pump. Hoses and wiring are trashed but the engine and pump work. I’ve never gotten real serious about it but I’ve thought about making something from it. Maybe hook the drive motors up to the front and rear axles or something.
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I've wanted to buy these for something for a long time. Make a little articulated guy.

Comer Industries 890411/890412 Articulated Steering Front Rear Axle Pair | Comer | Brands | www.surpluscenter.com

Comer Industries 890411/890412 Articulated Steering Front Rear Axle Pair, Comer, FRONT/REAR DRIVE AXLE NEW COMER INDUSTRIES front and rearComer Industries,890411.B001 / 890412.B001,
www.surpluscenter.com
 
IMHO, not remotely worth it. If all you want is to pull stuff, maybe, but most anything else it's going to be far more of a PIA than it's worth. Suspension, gear rations, tires, frame strength, size, turning radius, weight distribution, engine cooling, no PTO, no speed governor on the engine, etc. Going to be lots of fab work involved.

Provience said:
I guess I'm not aware of many decent $5k ford 4000 tractors, seems they need lots of work at that level. Other than being cheap, cab and heater, a shitty old truck would do a bunch of tractor things maybe somewhat almost as good as a tractor.
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Did you think about what you said here? Fixing up a tractor to have a properly engineered useful piece of machinery is way too much work, but cobbling up a hack job of a pickup into something that at best will be marginally useful isn't? :lmao:

$5k ought to get a pretty much turnkey older tractor. Now $500 is a different story, but I pretty much guaranty it's going to more time, effort and money to do what you want, and the end result will be far more useless than you think.
 
There was a time that I wanted to get something like a tracker or a tj or similar, hook up some sort of an electric hydraulic pump, and run a hay rake. The bossman vetoed it. Said turning radius would be too bad. I thought it’d be cool.
 
blakes said:
Gearing

Even my rig with 5.38's and a 10:1 Atlas is still faster than a tractor.
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This is true, but for the sake of his argument let’s say he uses factory 4.30 super duty axles, or maybe finds something even lower from a F550, and then stacks two or three np273’s, or a couple 273’s and some old four speed.
 
sdmuleman said:
IMHO, not remotely worth it. If all you want is to pull stuff, maybe, but most anything else it's going to be far more of a PIA than it's worth. Suspension, gear rations, tires, frame strength, size, turning radius, weight distribution, engine cooling, no PTO, no speed governor on the engine, etc. Going to be lots of fab work involved.




Did you think about what you said here? Fixing up a tractor to have a properly engineered useful piece of machinery is way too much work, but cobbling up a hack job of a pickup into something that at best will be marginally useful isn't? :lmao:

$5k ought to get a pretty much turnkey older tractor. Now $500 is a different story, but I pretty much guaranty it's going to more time, effort and money to do what you want, and the end result will be far more useless than you think.
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Yeah my thought was $5k for mostly functional

If mostly functional tractor exist at that level, amd apparently midwest is the place to look, Thales that defeats the whole thing :laughing:
 
_stucky said:
There was a time that I wanted to get something like a tracker or a tj or similar, hook up some sort of an electric hydraulic pump, and run a hay rake. The bossman vetoed it. Said turning radius would be too bad. I thought it’d be cool.
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I had an old exploder I bought for scap value but still ran that we used for a few years to pull an old ground driven side discharge rake. Worked great and the radio and AC was pretty snazzy out on the hay field. It had real poor visibility compared to open top tractor and the wife had a tendancy to go WAY to fast which kept jumpin the chain off. Beyond that, it was bueno. I would be pretty happy with any old open top 4x4 to pull rake provided you dont need a pto to operate the rake.

As to the turning radius, what crazy articulated small radius baler are you using??!? Baler usually controls windrow arrangement. Actually, for me, my stacker controls patterns cause it is the least maneuverable.
 
Provience said:
Yeah my thought was $5k for mostly functional

If mostly functional tractor exist at that level, amd apparently midwest is the place to look, Thales that defeats the whole thing :laughing:
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A little patience and watching auctions goes a long way. Time of year has a lot to do with it, ie hay season ends and a bunch of older machines held for "in case of" get dumped on the market. I have never paid 4000 for a tractor.
 
_stucky said:
There was a time that I wanted to get something like a tracker or a tj or similar, hook up some sort of an electric hydraulic pump, and run a hay rake. The bossman vetoed it. Said turning radius would be too bad. I thought it’d be cool.
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There are guys pulling hay rakes with pickups. Same hydraulics they run their bale beds with.
 
Gbkeith said:
This is true, but for the sake of his argument let’s say he uses factory 4.30 super duty axles, or maybe finds something even lower from a F550, and then stacks two or three np273’s, or a couple 273’s and some old four speed.
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You could buy a nice tractor for the cost of those cases plus adapters
 
DMG said:
You could buy a nice tractor for the cost of those cases plus adapters
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Especially if somebody places any value on their time.

However, to throw ol’ Provi a bone. Let’s say whoever is doing this has a thirty year pile of old pickups behind the barn and is going to fabricobble some sort of ingenious adapters.
 
If you want a 3 point I don’t know how you’re going to build anything useful for less than what a cheap tractor will do better.

I used to have plan to build a tractor from parts I have laying around. I still wanted big rear tractor tires and just the cost of real tractor tires on wheels kills any money saved.

I had access to a running gas 300 ford six cylinder power plant, like for an irrigation pump. Those have a grill and hood that I think look cool to start with. Being industrial they are better built than automotive but you can still hook an automotive truck transmission onto them. I was going to stick an NP435 and NP205 behind it. Use straight C channel for frame rails. Use a Dana 70U with 7.17:1 gears solid mounted to the frame. Leave the t-case in low range all the time. Make a beam front axle with a center pivot and full hydro steering.

This is roughly the kind of power unit I was intending to use.

IMG_6185.jpeg


I bailed on the idea when I bought a complete Ford 8N for $200 bucks. Then I got my little 1500 4x4 diesel tractor for 1325 bucks.
 
There was a real doodlebug on FBMP for $1500 in Ohio. I was really close to hooking up the trailer but didn’t have time.
 
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